This position was screened through a staffing agency, so there was a phone interview + in-person interview with the staffing agency first. The staffing agency called ALL of my references--3 former employers and a coworker-- and asked for unusually detailed reviews of my character and former roles and then compiled a comprehensive list of my duties and experience, the length of time performing, degree of experience, and all of the reviews that my references had given me, and then submitted the information to DealNews.
2 weeks after submission I had a phone interview with their Director of Talent. The phone interview lasted about 45 minutes and it was very pleasant and professional--very status quo per phone interview standards. I was, however, very confused between the staffer and the DOT with regards to how many rounds of interviews there would be, the nature of each of these rounds, etc., as each of them told me conflicting information. There wasn't great communication. I eventually came to understand that there is a phone interview, a departmental interview with other upper-level execs and team members, an interview with the CEO, and then a second interview with the CEO if all went well. My interview process didn't go like this, but I was told several times that what was described was how it "typically" goes.
Being that the CEO was abroad, I was scheduled 2 weeks out from the phone interview for my in-person interview with him. I wasn't given any parking requirements prior to arriving, so I simply parked in a non-designated parking spot in the lot beside their building. After being seated for the interview I was asked where I parked and then was told I would need to move my car to avoid getting ticketed, as the parking lot is monitored closely. I moved my car into their parking lot and was re-seated, awaiting the in-person interview with the CEO.
Once he arrived we were acquainted with a little small talk for a few moments and then he initiated the interviewing. For the next 50 minutes (he had a clock on the table) we painstakingly pored over every detail of the submission from the agency; during this time he asked me the "If we contacted former employer X, how would they describe you?" question. . . which threw me off, because they had in fact already contacted that employer, and he literally had a piece of paper with what she had said about me, verbatim, written right at the top. The last 10 minutes he left to me to ask any questions, and then he gave me his email address and told me to write if I should think of any other questions. We ended the interview with a handshake and parted ways.
I met briefly with the DOT again before leaving, at the CEO's prompting. She reiterated the "typical" interview process talk and then also gave me her business card and told me to contact her if I had any other questions, and that was that.
